Errol Flynn was born to parents 'Theodore Thomas Flynn', a respected biologist, and Marrelle Young, an adventurous young woman and decendent of a midshipman of HMS Bounty fame. Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble. When the family took up residence in England, Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school he was enrolled in. In his late teens he set out to find gold, but instead found a series of short lived odd jobs. Information is sketchy, but the positions of police constable, sanitation engineer, treasure hunter, sheep castrator, shipmaster for hire, fisherman, and soldier seem to be among his more reputable career choices. Staying one jump ahead of the law and jealous husbands forced Flynn back to England. He took up acting, a passtime he had previously stumbled into when asked to play (ironically) Fletcher Christian in a film called In the Wake of the Bounty. Errol Flynn's natural athletic talent and good looks attracted the attention of Warner Brothers and soon he was off to America. Flynn's luck held when he replaced Robert Donat in the title role of Captain Blood. He quickly rocketed to stardom as the undisputed king of swashbuckler films, a title inherited from Douglas Fairbanks, but which remains Flynn's to this day. Onscreen, he was the freedom loving rebel, a man of action who fought against injustice and won the hearts of damsels in the process. His offscreen passions; drinking, fighting, boating and sex, made his film escapades seem pale. His love life brought him considerable fame, three statutory rape trials, and a lasting memorial in the expression "In like Flynn". Serious roles eluded Flynn, and as his lifestyle eroded his youthful good looks, his career declined. Troubles with lawsuits and the IRS plagued him at this time, eroding what little money he had saved. A few good roles did come his way late in life, however, usually aging alchoholics, almost mirror images of Flynn. He was making a name as a serious actor before his death.


Istanbul (1957): $160,000
San Antonio (1945): $200,000
Objective, Burma! (1945): $200,000
Uncertain Glory (1944): $200,000
The Prince and the Pauper (1937): $2,500/week
Captain Blood (1935): $500/week
The Case of the Curious Bride (1935): $150/week
Murder at Monte Carlo (1934): $150/week

Father, with Patrice Wymore of Arnella (25 December 1953 - 21 September 1998) Ranked #70 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] It has been said that his 1959 autobiography, "My Wicked Wicked Ways," was originally to be called "In Like Me." When banned from drinking on a film set, he would inject oranges with vodka and eat them during his breaks. Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#86). [1995] On his mother's side, he was a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian and Edward Young, of H.M.S. Bounty fame. The phrase "In like Flynn," stems from his 1942 trial for statutory rape. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian, whom he portrayed in the film In the Wake of the Bounty (1933). He was also the 23rd great-grandson of Robert De Vere. In addition, he is the 15th cousin twice removed of Olivia de Havilland, who played Maid Marian, his love interest, in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Grandfather of Luke Flynn. He was voted the 26th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. He met his second wife while she was working at a snack counter in a courthouse during one of his rape trials. Warner Brothers' publicity department tried to claim that he was from Ireland, when he was in fact from Tasmania, the small island state of Australia. Although only 50, he succumbed to a massive heart attack at the apartment of Dr. Grant Gould in Vancouver while he was there to sell his yacht (The Zaca) to an old friend, George Caldough. The yacht was his "pride and joy", but due to financial difficulties, he was forced to sell it and had primarily lived on it during his final years. The autopsy showed he had the body of a 75-year-old man. He and director Michael Curtiz made some of their best pictures together, but he despised Curtiz (which was mutual) and the two fought constantly whenever they worked together. Ironically, his first wife Lili Damita was previously briefly married to Curtiz. Mentioned in the song "Blood on the Rooftops" by Genesis. In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story," in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathizer who spied for the Nazis before and during World War II. In Disney's film The Rocketeer (1991), the major villain, Neville Sinclair, was a 1930s Hollywood actor who spied for the Nazis, an obvious reference to Higham's allegations about Flynn. The book also alleged he was bisexual and had affairs with Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes and Truman Capote. Subsequent biographies - notably Tony Thomas' "Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was" (1990) - have denounced Higham's claims as fabrications. Flynn's political beliefs appear to have been left-wing. He was a strong supporter of the Spanish Republic and a fervent opponent of ultra-conservative Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and was a supporter of Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba, even hosting a documentary titled The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution (1959) shortly before his death. According to his own posthumous autobiography, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways", he admired Castro and considered him a personal friend. His mother had Polynesian ancestry, from Tahiti, through her four great-grandmothers--the mutineers of HMS Bounty sailed from Tahiti to Pitcairn Island, taking some Tahitian women with them. As of 2005, there were an estimated 55 descendants of the mutineers still living on Pitcairn. Probably his most uncharacteristic screen appearance occurred in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) when he sang and danced his way through a pub number entitled "That's What You Jolly Well Get". A chain smoker, in the last year of his life, he underwent hospital tests to see whether he had throat cancer. In the early days of establishing his Hollywood career, he passed himself off as Irish in the belief that few people knew of Australia. He was born, educated and began work in Australia, later drifting between Papua New Guinea and Sydney (rumoured to have been a fighter for PNG) before stumbling on to acting. The Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) captured some attention for him in the States and so, owing enormous debts to the Australian Taxation Office, he moved to America. He said to the ATO, "I'm willing to forget if you are.". Once stated that his only regret was his non-participation in World War II. Became seriously ill with liver failure in the mid-1950s. In his final years he suffered from Buerger's disease, acute inflammation and thrombosis (clotting) of arteries and veins of the legs, hands and feet as a result of his excessive cigarette smoking. Independent writer/director Patrick Stark is creating a dramatic feature about the last days of Flynn's life in Vancouver, British Columbia. Though Flynn did most of his own stunts in Against All Flags (1952), he balked at the one involving sliding down through a sail on a rapier blade, which was originated by Douglas Fairbanks in The Black Pirate (1926); it was performed by a stunt double. Mentioned in the Jimmy Buffett song, "Pencil Thin Mustache". In his book, "My Wicked Wicked Ways", Flynn recounted that as a young man in Papua, New Guinea, he had many adventurous jobs as a gold prospector, slave recruiter, a diamond smuggler, and a manager of coconut and tobacco plantations, just to name a few. He also spent a short time as a cadet patrol officer until it was discovered that he had misrepresented himself. Unfortunately, his time in New Guinea came with a price. While there, Flynn contracted malaria, which would plague him for the rest of his life. It has been a matter of dispute as to whether all his stories of adventure were true, but many have concluded that even if only 25% percent were true, he certainly had an amazing life. A British citizen, since Australian citizenship did not exist until the creation of the Commonwealth in 1949.